Diablo 3 Podcast Special – The first year of Diablo 3 part one

On the 15 May Diablo 3 will be one year old. It’s hard to believe but it was a whole year ago that gamers waited for what was probably one of the biggest PC game releases for many years.

It’s been a tough year for Blizzard and the Diablo franchise, there has been so many discussion points including the Error 37 problem at launch, Jay Wilson, well the list goes on.

In a two part Diablo Podcast special, the team look back at some of the more memorable moments for the game and part one is available now with part two to follow tomorrow. In part one topics discussed include:

0:30 — Show intro, D3 freespecs, and D2 rose-tinted glasses.

11:30 — Removed features during development make quite a lengthy list. Some are missed but most are unlamented.

15:30 — PvP regrets. Dueling was the best Diablo III feature in Blizzcon demos. All 3 guests still dream of a proper timed team deathmatch system.

23:00 — May 14th, 2012. Preparing for the big day and then launch! And then Error 37.

27:40 — Early days of “gear wall” difficulty. Inferno was infernal.

36:50 — Early days of “straitjacketed” by your build. Players trained by D2 and the easy Diablo III beta had a painful adjustment to Inferno requiring 4 or 5 defensive skills and buffs.

41: 20 — Early days issues with itemization. No one found legendaries and when they did the items were junk. Plus hopes and dreams for future legendary item improvements.

49:30 — Two-handed weapons. Useless in D2, useless in D3, for the exact same reasons.

The audio version of part one can be picked up from Diablo: IncGamers here. Look out for part two tomorrow.